The Golden Rule Matthew 7:12

All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the
prophets. - Matthew 7:12

1. Perhaps no days have been more ingenious and industrious than our
own in the endeavour to discover working principles and methods for
everyday conduct. One that aroused much interest was contained in the
phrase, "What would Jesus do?" It is a noble question, but its defect
for the purpose for which it is devised is that the answer is not
always either easy or obvious. It is an old instruction in dealing with
your neighbour to put yourself in his place. It is a less easy thing,
if you come to think of it, to put somebody else in your place. And
when that somebody else is one no less august and unique than the Lord
Christ Himself, the problem is not simplified. It seems sometimes as if
this eagerness for a new formula of conduct springs from despair of the
old. But perhaps it would be truer and fairer to say that it springs
from ignorance of the old, springs from failure really to grasp and
clearly to investigate the content of the old. There is no need to
discover any new formula for the regulation of conduct. All legal and
prophetic, all casuistical and spiritual wisdom still stands summarized
and complete in the Golden Rule. It is the pith and marrow of all
ethics; and obedience to it is the final achievement of all religion.

2. The word "therefore" in the text would seem to give it a connexion
with what precedes, and it will be instructive to inquire the meaning
of this connexion. Now if we look at the context, we shall find that at
the seventh verse of the chapter the Lord commenced a new division of
His sermon, of which division the text is the conclusion. He is
speaking of prayer. He says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and
ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you"; and then He
goes on to enforce the duty of prayer by reference to our own conduct
towards our children, drawing the very plain conclusion that, if we
with all our infirmities still answer our children's prayers, much more
will our Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him: up to
this point all is clear and easy, but then follow apparently somewhat
abruptly the words of the text, "All things therefore whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for
this is the law and the prophets." How do these words hang on to the
preceding part of the discourse? We shall understand this if we observe
that in the exhortation to prayer in the context our Lord is in reality
only taking up a point in the former part of His sermon; it is in the
preceding chapter that He first introduces the subject of prayer, and
in it He not only gives directions concerning prayer in general, but
utters that particular form of prayer which has been used by His
disciples ever since, known as the Lord's Prayer. Now if we look to
this prayer, and then regard the clause of which the text forms the
last verse as a recurrence to the same subject, we shall be able to
understand why Christ began His Golden Rule with a "therefore," and so
made it to hang upon what He had already said: for our Lord teaches us
in His prayer to make our own conduct towards our brethren the measure
of the grace which we venture to ask of God: "forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive them who trespass against us," - forgive us so, and only
so - and this being the ground upon which we ask for forgiveness of sins,
it is not to be much wondered at that He who taught us thus to pray
should also teach us to be careful, lest our own conduct should condemn
us and prevent our prayers from being heard; in fact, if we pray to God
to deal with us as we deal with others, it is a necessary caution that
we should be taught to deal with our neighbours as we would wish them
to deal with us.

The principle here enunciated is fundamental, underpinning the whole
structure of human society. It is equitable, because all men are more
nearly on an equality than might be inferred from a consideration of
their outward circumstances. It is portable, "like the two-foot rule"
which the artisan carries in his pocket for the measurement of any work
which he may be called to estimate. The Emperor Severus was so charmed
by the excellence of this rule that he ordered a crier to repeat it
whenever he had occasion to punish any person, and he caused it to be
inscribed on the most notable parts of the palace, and on many of the
public buildings.1 [Note: F. B. Meyer, The Directory of the Devout
Life, 179.]